This invention relates to bookbinding and, more particularly, to book cover applicators for applying covers to fillers or book blocks which may be made up of a stack of sheets, signatures or folios which have been secured together along one edge. The invention is suitable for use in making hard cover books, paper backs, notebook pads, pamphlets and the like.
Modern bookbinding machines are complex generally automated devices designed primarily for large scale mass production bookbinding operations in which sheets are fed to a holding device, and assembled into multiple sheet signatures or folios which are then stitched and bound to covers. These machines, however, cannot be used effectively and economically in small scale bookbinding operations in which limited numbers of books or the like are to be bound. Books of this type are commonly assembled by a sheet sorter or collator which operates in line with a duplicator or press and deposits the sheets in stacks into an array of receiving bins, jogs the stacked sheets so as to align at least one of their edges in a single plane, and secures or bonds the sheets together along the one aligned edge or spine to form a book block or filler. Until this invention, book covers have commonly been applied to this type of book in small scale bookbinding operations almost entirely by hand.
As used in this specification the terms "book block" and "filler" are synonomous and mean a stack of individual sheets, bound or stitched folios, or signatures which have been bonded together along one edge forming the spine. A "book" will be understood to comprise a "filler" or "block" and a "cover" bonded to the filler or block along its spine.